Thicker than Water
by Fanycharmed
Summary: The children of the Charmed Ones were always very close to one another. And yet they found themselves split into two squads, preparing to attack each other. But you know what they say – blood is thicker than water, so there might not be any blood in the end… – Just a sweet little one-shot. Enjoy! Oh, and no comics, the kids are different.


It was a warm Saturday afternoon, one of the many gorgeous days August had to offer that year. The sun was shining in the sky, the birds were singing the same old melody they sung every day, the people in the streets were talking, laughing and living their lives, unaware of the huge battle that was about to happen in the beautiful park. The grass was trampled by the soldiers, who were currently hiding behind the trees, waiting for the enemy team to make the first move. Both sides were reluctant when it came to breaking their cover, since that would give the others a free shot. It was only natural to be nervous about such thing, given that all the fighters were just kids.

They weren't just any kids, though. They were the offspring of the Charmed Ones – the most powerful good witches the world had ever seen. The children were witches too, even though only one of them was a pure witch – Melinda, the daughter of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt. The other fighters were all hybrids, some of them half witches and half Whitelighters, while two of them were half witches and half Cupids. No matter who their mothers were, the children weren't experienced in something like a war. They were very young; after all, the oldest one was only twelve years old, while the youngest one, little Henry, had barely hit the age of four. He knew he had to help, though. Because that's what war does: you either unite everyone, no matter the age, or lose. There's no in-between.

They were a family, and they were always very close to one another. They would do anything to help each other, any one of them would sacrifice himself for the family. And yet they found themselves split into two squads, preparing to attack each other. Their mothers weren't involved in the fight, nor did the children want them to be. They knew it was just their battle, nobody else's, and they had to work it out on their own. Somewhere deep inside of their souls, going up against their own cousins didn't feel right, but they decided to go on with it nevertheless.

Not all the nippers had an offensive power, but they didn't really need it. They had the weapons they were going to fight with. Some of them were more accustomed to the instrument than the others were, especially the oldest boys of the groups: Wyatt and Chris. Their team would surely be the winning one, if only the amount of people per unit was equal. However, it wasn't. The brothers' only ally was their sister Melinda, while their five cousins had become their foes. They guessed it was only fair, since all the cousins were younger than Wyatt and Chris. Actually, if one added up the ages of the teams, he would get an equal number, so the children assumed both teams' chances were more or less equal, too. Especially seeing how clumsy little Henry was.

Wyatt was the reason for the warfare. Not that the others didn't agree with it, but Wyatt was the one who came up with the idea to fight, and to team up with his siblings. He assumed Chris would be the most useful family member. And Melinda… Well, he just thought it would be more fitting than fighting against a sister with a cousin. But even though he wouldn't admit it, Wyatt was afraid of losing, too. The adrenalin was pumping through his young veins, his heart was beating faster than usual, and he was excited. They all were, in fact, thrilled, because on top of everything else, they would finally be able to draw a comparison between their strengths. They were often picking on each other about their powers, and this was an opportunity for the less powerful kids, the ones with the passive abilities, to prove themselves.

"All right," Chris whispered, breaking the silence. Everyone was quiet due to the fact that no warrior wanted the other side to know where exactly they were hiding. The element of surprise was valuable, after all. "Here's what we're gonna do. I'm going to yell 'Now!' so they will think we're leaving our hiding places and they'll try to attack us, but we are not going to leave until we see them. Once we do, we start fighting. Mel, you're going right, Wyatt and I are going left. Wyatt, you try and stay behind, you are the biggest one of us and that makes you the easiest target. If any of you is out of–"

"Wait, wait, wait, hold it," Wyatt interrupted, "why are you giving us the commands? We agreed that I should be the one leading the group, since I'm the oldest one." Wyatt was really irritated by his younger brother's behavior. Ever since he could remember, Chris was always trying to direct everything they were doing together, no matter what it was, no matter how important it was, and no matter how much more Wyatt actually understood the thing compared to Chris. And Wyatt wasn't very fond of it. He preferred to be the one who conducted himself, especially considering he was always feeling rather humiliated by being bossed around by his little brother.

"But you were just standing here, saying nothing. What was I supposed to do? Wait for another hour or so in order for you to finally decide it's the right time to talk?" Chris all but snapped. Just like Wyatt hated the fact his little brother was often the one taking control over their games, Chris hated when Wyatt was being haughty. Unfortunately, the older Wyatt got, the more frequently he acted that way.

"No, your plan is ridiculous, I'm not the easiest target just because I'm the tallest one," Wyatt said as he shook his head in disbelief.

"Of course you are, if you weren't–"

It was the six-year-old girl who didn't let Chris finish that time, "Stop it! Gosh, you're being more childish than I am. Can we just go and fight, please?"

"Let's just do it my way, okay?" Chris responded. However, he did not wait for an answer, and shouted, "Now!"

Chris's plan worked beyond reproach. The second he shouted the one word, all their cousins ran from behind the trees, making sounds that the brothers assumed were supposed to be war cries. Once the three siblings saw the figures of their cousins, they attacked. The battle began.

All the small children were screaming as they were trying to avoid the deadly liquids flying in their directions. They were holding the guns, aiming, and shooting the foes, while running around and hiding behind every tree they found. Little Henry was having the biggest problems. He wasn't good at aiming, and once he almost shot himself, which created a wave of laughter amongst the little boy's opponents. However, he seemed to be the fastest runner out of all the youngsters, and thus he was able to dodge pretty easily.

After a couple of minutes, Wyatt was finally able to hit someone: his cousin Jamie. He hit her right after she slipped on the already wet grass and fell down. She gave him one last irritated look, at which Wyatt grinned amusedly. He turned around and noticed that little Henry had stopped fighting and had started examining his blaster with interest, almost as if trying to find something. Wyatt took advantage of it and shot him, too.

"Double kill!" Wyatt hollered, excited by the fact that not only was he the first one to get someone, he shot two of his foes right away.

"GJ!" Chris told his teammate, smiled and ran away to dodge the certain death that was heading in his direction.

However, not even a minute later, Wyatt got hit by Jamie's older twin, Marcie. "Aaah! Man down! Man down!" Wyatt shrieked out as the liquid was coursing down from the place on his chest where he was struck.

"Don't worry, we'll get our revenge!" Melinda said to her brother, and tried to get Marcie. However, the girl ran to hide behind one of the biggest trees in the park.

Chris was also hiding when he heard his brother. He closed his eyes for a second and whispered, "Rest in peace." When he realized his baby sister was running after his cousin, who was approaching the same tree where he was hiding, he decided to wait. Once Marcie reached for the tree, he left the hiding place and shot her down.

Unfortunately, Chris didn't notice Prue, Phoebe's oldest daughter, coming from his left. "Gotcha!" she yelled mockingly as she fired, however, it turned out shouting wasn't a good idea, because surprised Chris only raised his hands, and suddenly Prue was standing there soaking wet, looking very angry, while others stopped playing and stared at her. "Hey! You used your magic! We agreed not to use our magic! You're cheating!" she shrieked loudly enough for her family to hear her, while at the same time making sure that nobody else did.

"It was an accident! I'm sorry!" Chris tried to defend himself as he raised his arms to the air in a giving-up manner.

"Chris, honey, come on, you know that is cheating," his mother scolded. She was sitting on one of the benches in the park, along with her sisters and their husbands. Piper was carefully putting five candles onto the chocolate birthday cake she made for her niece; Phoebe was trying to get her youngest daughter, not even a year old baby, to sleep, by softly rocking her in her pink baby carriage; and Paige was taking pictures of their running progeny, laughing upon seeing them running, screaming, and trying to shoot each other with their water pistols. Leo, Coop and Henry were discussing various things, mostly baseball and other sports, while watching the wet battle.

"I didn't mean to do it, I swear! She caught me by surprise, it was a reflex!" Chris explained. Prue then stuck her tongue out and shot him, too.

"There, you are dead, and I am still alive, got it?" Prue said, only for Chris to roll his eyes, but nod anyway.

"Okay, so now when this is dealt with, can we continue, please?" Melinda asked. The others nodded too and she said, "Great, everybody take your previous position. And one, two…"

"Mel, go after Prue," Chris advised, seeing Prue was standing in place where Melinda could easily shoot her, while Patty, the only other person that was still in the game, was behind Melinda, meaning she would have to turn around first.

Melinda looked at Chris, back to Prue and finished counting down, "… three!" In only a split second, Melinda was able to hit Prue, while Patty shot Melinda.

"Yeah! We won! I won, because I'm the last girl standing, which is fitting since it's my birthday," Patty shouted excitedly and smiled broadly. The adults clapped, along with little Henry, who was clapping and hopping.

"Yup, you won! Congratulations! But it was only because there were three of us and five of you. Seeing as we managed to get four of you, that means that if the teams had been equal, we would have won," Chris said with a hint of bitterness in his voice.

"Oh, really? Prove it," Marcie mocked.

"Sure. Let us play with one of yours in the next rounds," Chris responded.

"Very well, you can take little Henry," Prue said as she pointed to the boy who was looking at his weapon thoughtfully again.

"Now that would help us," Wyatt uttered to his little brother.

"It's better than nothing, though. Besides, he wasn't so bad at running. We'll take him," Chris said and Prue gave him a short nod and challenging look.

"Mommy, I'm out of water," Henry Jr. whined as he ran to Paige with the empty gun.

"That's because you kept shooting all the time. You weren't even aiming," Jamie told him, annoyed by the lack of professionalism her brother seemed to have during the game. Wyatt elbowed his own brother, who just shrugged, but none of them said anything.

Paige just smiled kindly at her son, "That's okay, baby, I'll get you some more water after we eat."

"Amen to that! Who wants some cake?" Piper said once she made sure the candles were placed in a perfect pentagon and lit them up.

"Yay!" all the kids shouted happily as they ran to the wooden table. They sat down and waited for Phoebe to put a colorful, pointy hat onto Patty's head.

"Okay, make a wish," Phoebe said to her daughter as she prepared to blow out the candles. She inhaled, exhaled and all the candles extinguished.

"Happy birthday!" they all chorused and clapped, except for Paige, whose hands were full, because she was designated to take pictures of the birthday girl. Piper than took a knife, sliced the sweet delicacy, and gave everyone a piece. Afterwards, they all began eating, talking and laughing about random stuff. Simply put, they were enjoying the day and each other's company.

And finally, Coop pronounced the question he couldn't get off of his mind since Wyatt shot little Henry during the game, the question that caused Wyatt and Chris to exchange weird, incredulous, yet kind of amused glances – "Chris, what does 'gj' mean?"

* * *

_The end_

* * *

Author's note

Oh, I think I forgot to mention this story takes place in the good future. Well, never mind. :-D I hope you guys enjoyed the story! :-)

A big thanks to my beta _hpenchantress_, who really helped me a lot with this story. Thank you! :-)


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